Vista council hears progress report on homelessness strategic plan, presses county for accountability

City staff gave a detailed update on implementation of Vista's Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness at a Jan. 29 council workshop, citing program outcomes, contract spending and requests for additional reporting.

Housing and Homelessness Services Division Manager Jonathan Lung told the council the plan — adopted in March 2020 — has ‘‘appropriated over $28 million, spending nearly $14 million of those appropriations’’ through Dec. 31, 2025. He said staff measure homelessness with an annual point‑in‑time count and a by‑name list maintained by the San Diego Rescue Mission; the 2025 point‑in‑time unsheltered count in Vista was 144 (a 15% decrease from 2024), and the by‑name list recorded 378 people engaged with outreach in the 90 days before Dec. 31, 2025.

The presentation reviewed multiple strategies and contracts that support shelter, outreach and housing: agreements with San Diego Rescue Mission to form the Vista HOT outreach team (which served 815 unduplicated clients and generated thousands of service interactions), a shared‑housing pilot (VHIP) that placed clients into master leases and individual units, a safe‑parking program operated by Jewish Family Service, and the Buena Creek Navigation Center (BCNC), which served 315 unduplicated people through the reporting period.

Council members broadly praised the city’s network of providers but pressed staff for clearer evaluation metrics and more granular reporting. ‘‘It would be very helpful if [the report] included the evaluation metrics in one place, with each strategy’s outcomes,’’ said Paul Webster, a member of the newly formed homelessness commission during public comment.

Council members repeatedly asked staff to differentiate who among recent arrivals were long‑term Vista residents versus people who arrived within the past year after being placed by another jurisdiction, voucher program or jail release. Kenneth Tolbert, who described intake practices for outreach, said outreach teams use brief intake interviews to ‘‘vest’’ clients into Vista — for example by lease, work, school ties or even library use — before adding them to local lists. Staff agreed to return with anonymized categories showing whether newcomers were placed via a county voucher program, referred from a jail or came to seek services on their own.

Deputy Mayor O’Donnell pushed for stronger county oversight and funding, saying the council should ‘‘write a stern letter to the county and to our supervisor Jim Desmond for this type of negligence’’ and asking whether the county reimburses Vista for services associated with county‑placed clients. Staff said the county provides weekly updates and offered transportation and social‑worker support through the county program, and noted recent moves of clients to an Oceanside facility; council members requested additional documentation of county responsibilities and any outstanding reimbursements.

Council members also pressed for action on a permanent navigation center. Lung said the city has appropriated $4.5 million from year‑end funds for a successor site and that Sen. Katherine Blakespear and a member of Congress had secured additional funding, bringing the known total to about $6.35 million. Staff reported a remaining funding gap of roughly $3 million for the Postal Way/HomeKey Plus proposal and said a nonprofit partner (identified in the presentation) is fundraising to cover the shortfall; the council asked for a status update and indicated some acquisition discussions may proceed in closed session.

On program performance, Vista House (a 12‑bed transitional program for young adults) has served 25 clients through Dec. 31, 2025. Amanda Cohen, the program manager, cautioned that HMIS exit codes can label some outcomes as ‘‘negative’’ even when the result appears positive in context — for example when a client reunifies with family or elects a non‑permanent living arrangement. ‘‘The negative that you see is an HMIS definition,’’ Cohen said, and staff agreed to provide a more nuanced breakdown of exit reasons so the council and public can better assess program success.

Council members asked staff to analyze several near‑term data items: (1) how many outreach interactions were driven by people on the by‑name list versus others; (2) anonymized origin categories for people in Vista fewer than 12 months (county voucher, jail release, neighboring city, self‑referral); (3) a clearer accounting of positive versus negative exits that reflects client preferences (for example family reunification); and (4) a status report on the Postal Way financing and partner commitments.

Staff closed by thanking partner agencies and said they will return with the requested disaggregations and recommended next steps for the standing committee and homelessness commission. The council directed staff to pursue county accountability for the voucher program and to report back on options — including whether to seek reimbursement for city services tied to county placements — and adjourned after running about 10 minutes over schedule.